AAN 2021 | Project ECHO: Epilepsy Across the Lifespan

Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) is a revolutionary tool for knowledge translation that reduces health disparities in under-served and remote areas of the world. O. Carter Snead, MD, FAAN, The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, discusses the establishment of the very first project ECHO and how the concept has spread globally, including to his own center in Ontario. The ECHO model uses a ‘hub and spoke’ approach via telementoring, where a designated expert center (‘hub’) teaches a virtual course to primary care providers (‘spokes’). An analysis of this model showed that patients treated by ECHO graduates did as well as those cared for at the hub. Prof. Snead shares the details of the recently established ECHO programs in epilepsy in Ontario. This interview took place during the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) 2021 Annual Meeting.